Various Reasons of South China Sea Dispute

The South China Sea dispute involves dispute over land (island) and maritime claims in the South China Sea (SCS) between 7 nations including China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia.

The origin of this dispute could be traced to the publication of eleven-dotted-line in China’s national map by the Kuomintang government in 1947, which was subsequently altered and reduced to a nine-dotted-line by the Communist government in 1949. This nine-dotted-line shows the maritime boundary of China in the SCS which, in essence, covers almost the whole of the sea. All the other nations involved in the dispute have lodged formal protests with the UN against this nine-dotted-line alleging that it is illegal under the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Disputes on territorial sovereignty include competing claims on islands in southern part of the sea including Spratly islands by China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, and Taiwan; islands in northern part of the sea including Paracel islands between China, Vietnam and Taiwan. The dispute also involves rival claims over maritime boundary along Vietnam coast between China, Vietnam and Taiwan; maritime boundary north of Borneo between Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Philippines, and Brunei and numerous other maritime boundaries.
Though China has not given any legal basis under international law for its exaggerated claim in the SCS, it is pointed that the estimated reserves of hydrocarbon resources and other maritime resources such as fishes, coral reefs, seagrass beds, plants, etc. are some of the predominant reasons for its inflated claims. These also form a key motivation for other nations to contest China’s claims, though in their case the motivation is equally to protect their territorial sovereignty under international law. While there is no uniform estimate of the hydrocarbon resources in the sea, studies by US Energy Information Administration estimate them to contain 11 billion barrels of crude oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas resources. Apart from the hydrocarbon resources, 10% of the entire fishery catch in the world comes from the SCS. Furthermore, value-added production (canning, fresh, frozen and chilled processing) has translated into valuable foreign exchange earnings and job opportunities for countries in the region. However, China has been imposing fishing rules to operate in the disputed waters, resulting in serious maritime security concerns and objections from other claimant states.
Strategic control of important shipping lanes is also a major factor behind the dispute. The South China Sea is a critical navigation route for commercial ships and naval ships travelling between Indian and Pacific oceans. Thus, security in the SCS is of paramount importance not only for regional countries such as Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia but also for extra-regional countries including India due to the strategic and economic implications for them. For instance, around 55% of India’s trade with Asia-Pacific region travels through the SCS region.
A range of motivations, including control over energy and marine resources, have led to the current intractable dispute in the SCS. The clash, which has the potential to lead to a naval face-off and even act as a catalyst for more serious confrontations between the countries, should be resolved by peaceful negotiations and diplomacy to ensure freedom of navigation and finally lead to recognition of territorial and maritime claims based on international law.